Magic Water

I saw this news story today, it contains two of my favourite things, magic and royalty, both concepts that, in my view, are irrational, divisive and unnecessary. It would seem that for the christening of Princess Charlotte this weekend (magic) water from the river Jordan was flown in - you have to wonder if these people have seen the river Jordan lately (see above) What with catastrophic overuse and man-made pollution it's only a smelly trickle of it's former 1st century self. You also have to also wonder if these people have heard of the water cycle, the molecules of Hydrogen and Oxygen (among others) that make up this river at this moment in time have been cycling around the world and through the bodies of plants and animals, mixing with other molecules in other lakes and rivers for billions of years there's nothing special about them (except maybe the recent pollution part?)

Of course, I realise it's symbolism. I doubt very much that a couple of modern people as well educated as the Cambridge's actually believe in magic. This kind of symbolic exclusivity is for the benefit of the audience, i.e. the plebs like us, designed to remind us of our place in this hierarchy, not them. It strikes me that if you must have some kind of water based ceremony for a member of the UK royal family then water from the Thames, the Mersey and the Tyne (to quote Elvis*) might be symbolically much more relevant to the acquisition of historical (industrial) power they continue to exploit than the rather sad symbol of a scarce (and declining) farming resource endowed with man-made magical powers that has been dividing and killing ordinary people for millennia, although on second thoughts...

*Costello of course.